Ghost Stories

"Hm... this campfire wasn't put out that long ago."

"No sh*t captain obvious, it musta' heard us and ran with all that yapping ya were doin earlier so do me a favor and shut yer trap."

"Piss off. You were talking too. How ya figure he aint hear ya ugly mug either?"

Two burly and relatively-well-equipped men now stood around the exact same campfire Marcus had been at only a moment ago. Currently the fire was put out and the only way the two men could see was by using the torches they'd brought along with them.

"Meh whatever, he couldn't have gotten that far. Lets split up and search," the first man spoke as he turned to search for any clues of the omen that had been here earlier.

"What?! Are ya crazy? Ya wanna split up when that thing could still be nearby?!"

"What? Don't tell me you're scared?"

The second man, who seemed to be cautious of their target, looked left and right to make sure no one was nearby and after deciding he and his partner were alone he began to speak again.

"Look man, I don't know how much ya know about the omen, but they aint to be taken lightly," the second man spoke in a serious tone."

The first man looked at the second confused. He didn't see the need for concern in this situation, as a smirk started to appear on his face.

"Wow, ya really are scared," the first man said while chuckling at his partners fearful expression.

The second man only glared daggers at his partner as he laughed at him, but when his partner noticed his stare he decided to stop laughing before he got left out here alone to search for the omen.

"Look, it ain't even matured enough yet to do us nothin. From what I've heard, its only been runnin' away from folk when they chase em'. It aint attacked or killed anyone yet, so it can't be all that dangerous. Your worrin' over nothin."

The second man didn't like the way his colleague was dismissing him, so he decided to push the matter forward before his partner got them both killed doing something stupid.

The man started to speak whilst rubbing his forehead with his one free hand.

"Tom, listen to me ya stupid prick. This ain't like the times we was out huntin' some stray low-ranked monster. This here's a omen. The things that got birthed from them wraiths all them years ago back in that big war."

It seemed the second man now had Tom's attention as he stopped searching to look at his partner seriously.

Satisfied that he now had Tom's attention, he continued.

"A while back there was this story goin round' about a group of mercenaries that was chasing after some omen. Group was full of rankers and they was some tough bastards from what I hear, called themselves the 'four horsemen'.

"They wasn't no ragtag group like us either, they was all rankers and looking to make quick coin just like us. Know how they ended up?"

Tom shook his head at his partner's question as a sign for him to continue.

"Well it went somethin' like this. Those guys took on a bounty to hunt some omen that had been said to be terrorizing locals in the area. The group of mercenaries just happen to be passing by and were running low on coin so they took the job to kill the little fledgling omen that'd been goin around.

"They set out late at night causing all kinda' ruckus in the surrounding towns lookin for the little monster but couldn't find em' anywhere. They'd been out there searching so long everyone else fell asleep, but that's when it happened.

"In the middle of the night, the bar in the town was still open and people inside were gettin' piss drunk havin' a merry old time thinking their omen problem was finally taken care of, till they heard four different screams all across the forest.

"All the villagers woke up in search of the screams but no one could find or see anything.

"Eventually after searching for a hour everybody went to sleep, hopin' the group that'd been searching for the omen was all right."

Tom gulped as he looked around more suspiciously now after hearing the story so far from his partner.

"So what happened to dem 'four horseman' guys?"

The man telling the story chuckled seeing the slightly spooked expression on Tom's face but continued the story anyway as he shrugged.

" Parently' some guard woke up in the morning to swap shifts with the sleeping guardsmen watching the gate. When the guard got to the gate though, he started screaming like some little girl.

"In front the gate were four severed heads impaled on a stake with their eyes missing and dried blood leaking all outta' their ears and mouth. At first no one knew who they were but after awhile they figured it musta' been them 'four horsemen' they sent out last night to search, but that was only the beginning.

"All around the town were different body parts of the four men that went out looking for the omen. Ears were nailed to doors of houses, legs and arms were in front of the doors to the bar, chest was hanging on a rope from the town's statue and their 'family treasure's' were found in the town's well.

"Screaming didn't stop in the town for several hours as they kept finding different body parts in different spots in the town. Them rankers got massacred and come to find out the little monster was only a little girl."

By this point in the story, Tom was thoroughly spooked. He couldn't stop stealing glances at his surroundings as he tried to hide his trembling.

His partner, who had told the story couldn't hold it in any longer and broke out into a fit of laughter.

"What the hell's so funny Jerry?! Weren't ya scared just a moment ago too?"

"Hahahaha.... yea... but the look on your face... hahaha, it's priceless," Jerry sputtered in between laughs while clutching his stomach.

As the two continued their obnoxious actions, a lone figure was crouched in a tree only a few dozen feet away. This figure was of course Marcus, the omen they were hunting.